The dead crewmen included three Indonesians, a Filipino and a Ghanian, authorities said. The three injured crew members were taken by ambulance to a hospital in La Palma and the nationality of only one of them was immediately known: Greek.

Why is this paragraph in there? They make it sound as if paramount importance we know the nationality of everyone, and the horror of what nationalities might have traveled with the "Greek" in the ambulance.

jimmyego:The dead crewmen included three Indonesians, a Filipino and a Ghanian, authorities said. The three injured crew members were taken by ambulance to a hospital in La Palma and the nationality of only one of them was immediately known: Greek.

Why is this paragraph in there? They make it sound as if paramount importance we know the nationality of everyone, and the horror of what nationalities might have traveled with the "Greek" in the ambulance.

Deathboat sounds like a cheesy horror movie... Who can we pitch this to?

Sounds like a Tromasterpiece. But it has to be about a guy who was bitten by a radioactive boat and now turns into a half-boat half-man that takes down crime by killing scumbags while spouting nautical puns.

jimmyego:The dead crewmen included three Indonesians, a Filipino and a Ghanian, authorities said. The three injured crew members were taken by ambulance to a hospital in La Palma and the nationality of only one of them was immediately known: Greek.

Why is this paragraph in there? They make it sound as if paramount importance we know the nationality of everyone, and the horror of what nationalities might have traveled with the "Greek" in the ambulance.

Cruise ships are fun, but can be scary. Here in Florida we usually get to hear one or two stories a year where happy couple X goes on a cruise and one of them mysteriously disappears in the middle of the night. The rails are only about waist or stomach height ... so I can see someone getting drunk and falling (pushed) over the side very easily.

Iron Felix:jimmyego: The dead crewmen included three Indonesians, a Filipino and a Ghanian, authorities said. The three injured crew members were taken by ambulance to a hospital in La Palma and the nationality of only one of them was immediately known: Greek.

Why is this paragraph in there? They make it sound as if paramount importance we know the nationality of everyone, and the horror of what nationalities might have traveled with the "Greek" in the ambulance.

As a former Cruise Ship employee and "Life Boat Captain", I'm honestly surprised this didn't happen more often. I was a DJ on ships, which meant I usually went to sleep at about 4AM, and I was quite hammered 99% of the time. Life boat drills happened before every cruise with the passengers, but the drills where we actually lowered them in to the water were once a month, and nearly always started at 8AM in one port or another. So imagine me on 4 hours of sleep and still drunk being in charge of all this (because I could speak English, that's why) and, well, I'm seriously surprised I never killed anyone.

No excuses - I was young, dumb and full of - well nothing because I got laid a lot - but really the drinking and constant sex were the only things I cared about. Safety? Pffft.

Interesting, in an actual event the deaths probably wouldn't have occurred as the cable snapped when they were hoisting the lifeboats back onto the ship, which wouldn't have happened in a real emergency.

Now correct me if I'm wrong (my only experience with abandon ship procedures was when they taught us how to jump off the side with a CO2 and not break your neck in the process, our lifeboats were those crappy barrels that had an inflatable in them), but aren't lifeboats supposed to be designed to survive with their human cargo intact when dropped from the davit? Because, you know, if the ship is sinking anyways, you know everything on that ship is on Murphy's radar, so while it'd be NICE to gently deposit the lifeboat in the ocean, chances are damn near certain that at least ONE lifeboat's going to fall from deck height, and it'd be nice if the passengers on it didn't go all squashy (like these did)

g4lt:Now correct me if I'm wrong (my only experience with abandon ship procedures was when they taught us how to jump off the side with a CO2 and not break your neck in the process, our lifeboats were those crappy barrels that had an inflatable in them), but aren't lifeboats supposed to be designed to survive with their human cargo intact when dropped from the davit? Because, you know, if the ship is sinking anyways, you know everything on that ship is on Murphy's radar, so while it'd be NICE to gently deposit the lifeboat in the ocean, chances are damn near certain that at least ONE lifeboat's going to fall from deck height, and it'd be nice if the passengers on it didn't go all squashy (like these did)

Did you see the pic of the rope? How about one end of the boat drops first, depositing crew into the sea, neatly followed by the boat itself?